THE SPRING GULLY RESERVOIR. THE subject of this sketch is Grassy Flat, near Sandhurst. During Mr. John Gully's visit to Victoria, he was so struck with the beautiful view that.he sketched it, and the result is an admirable water colour drawing. The mountains in the distance are Mount Ida, near Heathcote, and Mount Camel, near Cooper's Lake, both about fifty miles away. In the centre is the Grassy Flat reservoir. The foreground is the property of the hon. J. J. Casey, M.L.A., in whose possession the original painting now is. Grassy Flat is about a mile and a half to the east of Sand- hurst, and about two hundred feet above the level of Pall Mall.

THE STRANDING- OP THE STEAM SHIP MACGREGOR. ON the 26th February last, the Star of the South, the Tartar, and the Macgregor were in company steaming through the Kadavu Passage, in the Fiji group. Mr. Hall (of the Australian and American Mail Company), Mr. Woods, a Fijian minister, and the hon. Soul Samuel, (PostmasterrGeneral of this colony), were on board the Tartar, together with a deputation of gentlemen, appointed by the citizens of Levuka to confer with the captains of the Australian, American, and New Zealand mail line of steamers, -with the view of getting the port of call changed from Kadavu to Levuka. The object of the trip was, amongst other things, to judge of the value of this particular passage. In spite of the opinion to the contrary of many old resi- dents amongst the group of islands, a very early start was made, the Macgregor leading, lt was asserted by those who protested against the early start, that no one who knew any- thing about reefs Avould attempt a passage ...

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' THE DISMASTING OP THE SHIP CAMBRIDGESHIRE. ANOTHER singular disaster has happened to a new iron clipper ship. It was hut re- cently that the calamity which occurred to the Dallam Tower, also a new iron clipper ship, was chronicled ; and since then we have had to record the dismasting of the iron Clyde clipper ship Loch Maree ; and news came to hand only a few days ago, via Ade- laide, that the Loch Ard, . another of the Clyde line, and quite a new iron ship, had been dismasted. This was the second occa- sion on which the Loch Ard was dismasted prior to her making her first voyage. To whatever cause it may be assigned, it seems strange that these repeated marine catas- trophes have occurred to new iron ships, with iron masts, and all the latest modern improvements. Considerable excitement pre- vailed in Melbourne at the beginning of this month, about the safety of the Cambridge- shire, which ought to have arrived some time before ; and, on the 2ud May, the Chief Sec- retary of Vict...

OUE SUPPLEMENT. . "THE SLEEPING PARTNER." j THE beautiful subject which forms the Sup- plement to the Illustrated Sydney News this month is one which the French painter Perault has most successfully treated. Its original title, "Qui dort dine"-"whosleeps dines "-though sufficiently suggestive to natives of Italy or Spain, who are well ac- quainted with the proverb, does not so readily convey its meaning to Englishmen and Englishwomen. But the picture speaks for itself, and shows the danger of indulging in a nap before instead of after dinner. It may uofc be everybody's luck to take their solitary meal of bread and butter under the shadow of the domestic birch, nor after a short but happy dream of flowers and angels' voices, to wake up suddenly and find that "Tommy " has busied himself during the in- terval in greasing his whiskers on the oily covering of on r midday allowance ; but no one can behold poor little "Curly" except with sorrow for his loss, and pity for the astonishment a...

THE COBDEN CLUB MEDAL. ON our front page is to be found an engrav- ing of the "Cobden Club" gold medal of membership, forwarded to the Hon. Henry Parkes per last mail fromEnglaud, in recog- nition of the important services rendered by him to the cause of Free Trade. In size it is fully two anda half inches across, of pro- portionate thickness and weight, and is a splendid specimen of "mint" engraving. The designs on both sides are very simple, but chaste, the obverse containing a low relief portrait of Richard Cobden, the letters of his name, and dates of his birth and death. On the reverse is ' ' Free Trade, Peace, Good- will amongst Nations ; " and in the centre, surrounded by a wreath of wheat, " Cobden Club, founded 1866." The ornament and lettering are beautifully raised in dead gold on a field brilliantly burnished. Round the edge of the medal is engraved in small, well formed letters, " Presented to the Hon. Henry Parkes for his services in inaugurating Free Trade in New Sout...

PARLIAMENTARY PORTRAITS. IN our present issue we offer to our readers tlie first batch of a series of Parliamentary portraits, which will be continued until the list . of present members is exhausted. This portrait gallery will be all the more valuable as there is every reason to believe that the materiel of the House will be very much altered at the next general election, not only by reason of the chauges whicli invariably occur upon such occasions, but also from the number of constituencies that have been cut up or varied, and from the increased num- ber oí representatives. As this will, pro- bably, be the last Parliament in which some of these hon. gentlemen will appear before the public with the prefix of " honourable" aud the affix of "M.L.A.," or "M.P.," a short account of the political career of each may not be without interest. As a matter of course, we.are bound to commence with the Honourable the Speaker.

JOHN HAWTHORNE, THE ASSASSIN. TUE accompanying portrait of Hawthorne, alias Perry, is from a photograph taken at the time of his arrest, after making a determined murderous attack upon Mr. James Slocombe, of Goulburn, for which offence Hawthorne suffered the extreme penalty of the law within the walls of Goul- burn Gaol, on the 19th instant. Save for a sinister look observable about his eyes, he would hardly have been suspected to have all the worst (j uali ties of the most treacherous and bloodthirsty animals. Tho circumstances of the attack upon Mr. Slocombe, and that gentleman's marvellous escape, muaj; still be very fresh in the minds of our readers; but a reference to them is necessarj' for tne pur- pose of connecting Hawthorne with the four murders to which he confessed while on the scaffold, and which were effected in almost entirely tho same way by which lie attempted to dispose of Mr. Slocombe. On the 25th January last, Mr. Slocombe, who is a dealer in cattle, started on ho...

Cfce Monti). THE proposed release of Christie, alias Frank Gardiner, the notorious bushranger, has been perhaps the most important topic of the month. Mr. Smith, member for Wellington, having asked the Government whether it was true that Gardiner was to be released (con- ditionally upon going into exile) upon the termination of ten yearB of his sentence of imprisonment, and receiving an affirmative answer, a debate arose, in which the leading members of the House took part. Mr. Parkes gave an explanation of the circum- stances under which His Excellency the Go- vernor had decided to exercise the Queen's clemency towards Gardiner, afterwards pro- ducing papers relating to the matter from which it appeared that the sisters of the pri- soner had petitioned His Excellency for a remission of his sentence, urging in his favour that at the time of his arrest he was leading an honest life, and had determined to reform; ~ that during his imprisonment his conduct had been most orderly, and th...

THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXTRACT FROM A LETTER dated 15th May, 1872, from an old inhabitant of Horningsham, near Warminstor, Wilts "I must also beg to say that your Pills are an excellent Medicine for me, and I certainly do enjoy good health, sound sleep, and a good appetite ; this ia owing to taking your Pills. I am 78 years old. Remaining, Gentlemen, yours very respectfully. ITO tua Proprietors of V-g » NORTON'S CAMOMILE PILLS, London." '

SCIENTIFIC. WE all know that scientific men can predict ( the approach of storms with a fair amount of accuracy ; if they could, in like manner, foretell a fall of temperature, their services to meteorological science, and to horticul- tural and agricultural practice would be in- calculable. If these changes could be fore- seen how readily would gardeners seek for means of protection. The precise mode in which plants are affected by cold is hardly completely known. In many cases, no doubt, the vital properties of the protoplasm contained within the cells receive an injury from the direct effect of low temperature from which there is no recovery. In other instances, death is not the inevitable result even from freezing, if thawing he gradually effected. Some curious experiments appear to shew that cold below the freezing-point, like the temperature of boiling water or the electric discharge, produces an alteration in the cell-walls, which renders them more per- vious to fluids, and, ...

Australian wheat is quoted at 57s. to 62s. per öOOlbs. in London. Mining accidents have been frequent in the colonies during the month. . A Farmers' Association is in course of . formation in the Albury district. A London journal states that H. E., H. . Prince Arthur was initiated as a Freemason. It is expected that three new lines of rail- way will be opened in Victoria early in July. Reports from the various gold districts ; show that the yield of the precious metal is increasing. £11,000 has been granted by the Brisbane Parliament for the erection of a lighthouse in Torres Straits. Mr. James Ascough, an old resident and magistrate of thirty years' standing, died at "Windsor on the 9th instant. Zephaniah Wilhams, the last of the New- port Chartist exiles, died at Launceston in "the early part of the month. Captain Jopp (Royal Engineers) has been ^appointed Secretary to the Agent-General of New South Wales in London. ^ The Borough Council of Albury have peti- tioned, the Government...

"TEN YEARS AGO "-AN EVERY DAY SCENE. WE have thought fit, at this particular period, when it has become fashionable to extend sympathy to the members of as cowardly a band of robbers and murderers as ever infestbd the Australian bush, to reproduce a scene often to be met with, and' always feared by honest travellers in New South Wales when the bandit Gardiner and his gang of despe- radoes held supreme command of the roads. The picture is not overdrawn, but represents faithfully an occurrence of the time, and shows what a reign of terror must have been exer- cised by a number of those " converted " scoundrels whom the Government now pro- pose to release. Fortunately for society the murderers shown in the scene represented have long ago paid tho penalty of theil' crimes ; but it cost the colony many thousands of pounds, and necessitated the passing of a very stringent Act of Parliament before so desirable an end could be reached. An extract from our issue of Dec. 16,186á, in which the...

SKETCHES AT COOKTOWN. COOKTOWN has the charm of being at a remote distance from nearly all other Aus- tralian settlements. It has gaiued a hazy and mysterious reputation of being rich in gold, and as a matter of course, hundreds of adventurous spirits rushed off to the new El Dorado. Gold, it cannot be denied, has been found in considerable quantities in the new region, but to nothing like the extent that has been represented. By a series of unaccountable blunders, hundreds are con- verted into thousands, when quantities relating to ounces are transmitted, and disappointed diggers are suspicious enough to suppose, and bold enough to declare, that shipping agents and traders wilfully commit errors when communicating the amount of returns to the settled districts of the various colonies. When huudreds'of rash adventurers arrived on the new gold-fields, the gilding and tinting imparted to the scene at a distance by interested persons disappeared ; it was discovered that the thou- sands...

BURSTING- OP THE PUMPING DAM. BOTANY WATER RESERVE. SATURDAY, May 2nd, ushered in two days' rain of as continuously heavy a character as any which has been witnessed for many a year in Sydney. From sunset on the 2nd till daylight on the 4th it is reckoned that no less than eight inches of rain must have fallen, and although, through carefulness of the Corporation officers, the city streets were not .flooded to any great extent, the rush of water in the gullies at Woollahra, Randwick, and other suburbs was so great as not only to threaten the safety of houses in the locali- ties contiguous, but also human life itself. As it is, we are happy to omit chronicling a single death by drowning. Not so the de- struction to property, however, for the Syd- ney Corporation have sustained a loss through the bursting of several dams, and consequent flooding of adjacent land and houses with water, which it will take fully £5000 to pay off. In anticipation of some accident at both the Lachlan and B...

CHINESE FISHERMEN. WE have here endeavoured to portray a phase of industrial life at Port Stephens and other places in our colony. The engraving represents a party of Chinese fishermen pur- suing their occupation on the beach. Net fishing is what they are engaged in at the moment-a style of fishing in which our Mongolian immigrants appear to be most at home. The nets vary in length fróin forty to eighty fathoms, having inch meshes. The fish caught by them are mostly flounders, garfish, flatheads, salmon trout, silver fish, and mullet. Occasionally large numbers of stingarees, small sharks, squid, and devil fish are ensnared, and these not only do injury to the nets, but are useless except for bait. The fishing is chiefly carried on at night, or early morning, when the sea is smooth, with a light wind blowing off the land. The yield varies ; sometimes it is poor enough, and easily disposed of by Chinese hawkers in the city and suburbs ; but when there is a glut, the fishermen send th...